Courtroom scene revised
by ryhoyarbie
Summary: I didn't like the courtroom scene where the ghostbusters were standing trial in the second film, so I decided to revise it a little with the addition of Winston who seemed to disappear when ghostbusters were battling the Scoleri brothers.


_Ghostbusters is owned by Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and the folks at Sony Pictures_

_A/N: I'm not too fond with the courtroom scene from Ghostbusters 2, particularly how the writers handled Winston Zeddemore, so I decided to rewrite it with some changes._

It was late in the morning and the three ghostbusters consisting of Doctor Egon Spengler, Doctor Peter Venkman, and Doctor Raymond Stantz found themselves in a large courtroom in downtown New York City.

The result of their predicament in ending up in the courtroom was helping Dana Barret, the ghostbusters friend who was possessed by Zuul, a minion of Gozer. Gozer's claim to fame was bent on destroying the planet Earth but was stopped by the four ghostbusters. Dana in the process was turned into a terror dog, however, she was turned back once the four boys in gray destroyed Gozer in her chosen form, that of a one-hundred foot marshmallow man.

With Gozer destroyed, all the ghosts disappeared to wherever they came from and the ghostbusters business went dry, causing the ghostbusters to end their business as paranormal investigators and find other jobs.

For a time Dana was involved with Peter Venkman, but that relationship soured and Dana moved on. She hadn't kept in touch with the ghostbusters during the five years after they met each other, but fait had a funny way of reuniting people.

A few days ago, Dana was walking with her baby son, Oscar, and carrying some groceries. Unbeknown to her, she walked right past a puddle of slime, which collected on the tires of the stroller carrying her baby. The stroller suddenly took off before it stopped right before a bus in a busy street. She enlisted Egon Spenger who brought along Ray Stantz to investigate what happened to the baby carriage. Also along for the ride was Peter Venkman who managed to get into the investigation once he found out his friends were working on a case for Dana.

After finding something underneath the street where Oscar's baby carriage stopped, the ghostbusters dug a hole in the middle of 1st Avenue which caused them to be arrested by the police, though they did find some slime underneath the street which they wondered how it got there.

Which brings the ghostbusters to court to stand trial….

Dana looked at Peter. Although she hadn't seen him in a good number of years, she did care for him and was upset with herself that he and the others were standing trial for investigating the problem she had with the baby stroller.

"Peter," Dana began to say, "I just want you to know how deeply sorry I got you all into this."

Ray and Egon were sitting in their seats right next to Dana who was standing up along with Peter. They were hearing the entire conversations, which was Dana's intention.

Peter smiled back, trying to ease his friend's mood. "Hey, we were bound to be arrested sooner or later for our job."

Dana sighed. She knew Peter was trying to humor her, but it wasn't working. "You were arrested before Peter. Remember five years ago?"

"And look how that turned out," Peter thought back at the day where they were in jail briefly and then went to the mayor's office to convince him he needed the ghostbusters to stop Gozer. "We saved the day."

Dana shook her head. "But this is all my fault." She looked at Ray and Egon and then back at Peter. "If I did not call you three to help me, you wouldn't be here right now."

Peter lightly grabbed Dana's hands and continued to smile. "Don't worry about a thing Dana. Things will work out for the best. They always do." He decided to change the subject. "So where's the garbage disposal at?"

"Who, Oscar?" Dana couldn't help but let out a giggle. Babies do eat a lot of food, there was no question. "With the nanny. I decided it would be best not to have a baby in a courtroom."

"Too bad, he's probably going to miss a hell of a trial," Peter responded.

Dana nodded and walked away to find a seat.

Winston Zeddemore passed by Dana, exchanged a few words with her, and walked over to greet his friends.

"Before we begin this trial I want to make one thing very clear, the court doesn't recognize the existence of ghosts, and I don't believe in them either," replied Judge Stephen Wexler, a man in his fifties who was rubbing his right eye while holding a pair of glasses. "I don't want to hear a lot of malarkey about goblins, or spooks, and demons. We're going to stick to the facts in this case, leave the ghost stories to the kiddies. Understood?"

Winston looked at the judge and then back at Egon and Ray. "Wow, sounds like a pretty open minded guy, huh?"

"Yeah they call him 'The Hammer'," Egon replied.

Ray sighed and looked at Egon. "And what can we do, it's all in the hands of our lawyer now."

Luis Tully, the nerdy young man who became possessed by Vince Clortho the key master of Gozer and who also turned into a terror dog, came up to the three holding a bunch of books. After exchanging a few words about getting a law degree at night school not handling trials before, he walked away leaving Ray and Egon to wonder why they hired him in the first place.

Winston simply shook his head after Louis's departure. "It's a good thing I did not agree with you guys to dig a hole in the middle of the city. This trail doesn't seem like it's going to go well in your favor."

"You always had the most common sense out of all of us Winston," Egon said, his statement coming out as a compliment.

"That's why I'm not standing trial today," Winston smiled. "Good luck guys. I'll try to help you all with your bail money once it's set."

**Sometime later…**

From the negative tone coming from the judge, the slime that was put on the evidence table spewed out. Two ghosts emerged from the slime who were being held by electric chairs. Judge Wexler immediately knew who they were and identified them as the Scoleri Brothers who were tried and sent to the chair years ago. Wexler knew the two brothers were after him and would probably kill him.

Suddenly the group heard a woman scream and decided to investigate what was going on. The larger Scoleri brother grabbed the prosecutor by her legs and dragged her out of the courtroom and into the lobby.

As the doors swung open from the larger ghost, Winston quickly ran over to his friends. He looked at Peter. "Dana is okay Peter, though frightened like everyone else. So far the ghosts don't seem interested in the spectators."

"That's because they're interested in me!" Judge Wexler replied nervously. He walked away from the ghostbusters with his hands around his hair contemplating the faith that would await him. He cried out with a new sense of terror that filled his body.

Peter shot a smile at the judge, relishing the judge's problem. "You're next bubbles!"

The judge knew what he had to do, even if he did not like it. "Alright, alright! I'm rescinding the order! Case dismissed!

Louis cried out with enthusiasm. "Hurray we won the case!"

Ray and Winston cheered while Egon yelled out 'yes' with a triumphant tone.

"Now do something!" Wexler yelled out, wanting the four ghostbusters to go to work.

The four ghostbusters grabbed their proton packs respectively. Egon and Ray helped each other put their packs on while Winston and Peter helped each other with theirs. As it stand, the four ghostbusters were lined up in a row consisting of Egon, Ray, Peter, and Winston in that respective order.

"You know it's been a couple years since we've used this stuff," Peter said. "Hope it still works."

"It should," Egon was sure. "Power cells have a half-life for five-thousand years."

"There's no time for a bench test," Ray said as he grabbed his particle thrower from the back of his pack. "Heat em' up."

"Doe!" Peter smiled as he switched on his particle thrower.

"Ray!" Ray was getting in the mood.

"Egon!" Egon looked directly at Venkman who had a baffled expression on his face.

Winston shook his head. "You know I do wonder about you guys sometimes! Clearly your sanity is questionable at moments."

"You should have seen us at parties during our college years," Peter looked at Winston. "I was always partying while the 'funboys' over there were embedded with their heads in books. They were the insane ones while I was the normal one."

Egon and Ray decided not to say anything to Venkman. The ghostbusters turned their attention to the empty courtroom where everything seemed silent.

Suddenly a chair moved startling Stantz. Then another chair moved, and then another, before the two Scoleri brothers decided to come out and started to growl at the four ghostbusters. The four blasted their proton streams out at the two brothers but missing them. However, the proton streams hit the walls and ceiling of the courtroom, even crossing each other at one point before driving the two ghosts away through a wall where they vanished.

The four ghostbusters looked at each other. Peter began to laugh, followed by Ray, then Egon and Winston as all four thought they had managed to stop the Scoleri brothers. At the same time, Louis came out of hiding after hearing the ghostbusters laughing. However, with the appearance of the larger Scoleri brother, Louis ran back to his hiding spot with Judge Wexler.

Instinctively like he didn't give any thought into it, Peter started to fire at the fat Scoleri brother.

"You've got him Venkman!" Egon yelled out. "Hold it!"

Peter started to move closer to the larger ghost, his stream coming closer to him. "Come on big boy! I'm going to take you home to my private zoo!" Suddenly Peter's stream collided with the ghost, trapping the ghost like a rope holding onto a cow. The ghost tried to break free but couldn't.

"You got him! You got him!" Ray yelled out with a smiled. He looked at Egon. "Spengy bring the trap!"

Egon nodded as he grabbed the trap from the table. "Okay, okay!" However, the other Scoleri brother came through a wall which caught Egon's attention.. "Behind you Ray!"

Ray saw the ghost and started to fire at it. At first Ray missed and his stream broke some glass which landed on Wexler, but Ray's stream hit the other ghost. The ghost tried to break free like his brother but couldn't.

Peter was having some trouble trying to hold the larger Scoleri brother. He looked back at Winston who was ready to do something but was just standing there. "Hey Winston, a little help here!" Peter raised his voice for Winston to hear him.

"Coming Peter!" Winston said as he moved closer to him. He began to fire and his proton stream hit the ghost. "Round up time!"

"Hold it Ray!" Egon said. He then looked at Venkman and Zeddemore. "Venkman , Winston, start bringing it back!"

"Come on you big boy, let's go! Come on chubby!" Peter said as he was walking back to join the other three.

"Great Ray, keep pulling to the right!" Egon said as he was positing the trap in the middle of the room. "Okay the trap's going in!" He kicked the trap out as the three ghostbusters were lining up the two Scoleri brothers above the ghost trap.

"No, no, not yet!" Winston replied, still trying to get the larger Scoleri brother above the trap with the help of Peter.

"Hold it Ray," Egon said as he saw the opportunity to trap the ghosts once and for all. Peter was at the far right of Egon, followed by Winston right beside Egon, and then Ray on Egon's right. It was now or never as the three ghostbusters had the two ghosts in position.

"Hit it!" Ray said.

Egon hit the peddle and the trap doors flew open. The two Scoleri brother were immediately sucked into the trap as the trap doors finally closed.

The four ghostbusters walked over to the trap with a sense of victory.

"Two in the box!" Ray smiled at his friends.

"Ready to go!" Egon replied.

"We be fast….," Peter said.

"And they be slow!" All four ghostbusters replied with their fingers pointing at the two ghosts now inside the ghost trap.

Louis came out and looked at the trap in amazement. "Wow!"

"We're back in business fellas," Winston smiled.

The courtoom doors opened and all four ghostbusters came out with Winston and Egon in the middle and Peter and Ray on the right and left side respectively. Louis was in the back holding the ghost trap that had steam coming out of it. The four ghostbusters were met by a flock of reporters and some photographers.

"We're the best, we're the beautiful, we're the only ghostbusters," Peter was echoing what his colleagues were thinking.

"We're back!" Ray cheered as he swung his right arm up in the air.

And yes, the ghostbusters were back in business…

_Whoever read this, I hope you liked it! _


End file.
